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Malaysia Releases Details of Last Contact With Missing Plane Malaysia Releases Details of Last Contact With Missing Plane
(about 5 hours later)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Malaysian authorities released new details on Tuesday of the last satellite communications by Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, even as furious family members and friends of the plane’s passengers broke through police lines in Beijing and marched to the Malaysian Embassy. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Malaysian authorities released new details on Tuesday to buttress their conclusion that Fight 370 must have ended in a crash in a remote part of the Indian Ocean. But with no physical evidence of the plane’s fate yet found, and the search suspended for a day because of treacherous weather, distraught relatives and friends of passengers mounted an angry protest in Beijing, breaking through police lines and marching to the Malaysian Embassy demanding more answers.
Hishammuddin Hussein, the defense minister and acting transport minister, said that the plane appeared to have sent a last, partial satellite signal eight minutes after a previously disclosed electronic “handshake” between the plane and a satellite at 8:11 a.m. on March 8. The incomplete signal represented a “partial handshake,” he said. Hishammuddin Hussein, the defense minister and acting transport minister of Malaysia, said at a news conference near Kuala Lumpur that the plane appeared to have sent one more partial signal eight minutes after the last of the previously disclosed electronic “handshakes” between the plane and a satellite, which engineers have analyzed to infer the plane’s probable path after it disappeared from radar screens early on March 8. Mr. Hishammuddin called the newly reported signal a “partial handshake.”
“At this time, this transmission is not understood and is subject to further ongoing work,” Mr. Hishammuddin said. “At this time, this transmission is not understood, and is subject to further ongoing work,” he said.
The next signal from the aircraft was due at 9:15 a.m. but never came. Mr. Hishammuddin referred delicately to the likelihood that the cessation of signals came after the plane ran out of fuel, saying that the timing “is consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft.” The last full handshake was recorded at 8:11 a.m., more than seven hours after the plane took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members. The next satellite signal from the aircraft would have been due by 9:15 a.m., but it never came. Mr. Hishammuddin referred delicately to the likelihood that signals stopped because the plane ran out of fuel and crashed, saying that the timing “is consistent with the maximum endurance of the aircraft.”
On Tuesday morning, relatives and friends of many of the 153 Chinese passengers on Flight 370 gathered outside the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing to demand that Malaysian officials tell them the truth about the fate of the flight. They went there despite assurances from the police that the Malaysian ambassador would come to their hotel to talk to them, an apparent effort to dissuade them from going to the embassy, according to people on the scene. His office later released additional technical details about the way the satellite signals had been analyzed and about how those calculations had narrowed down the search area.
The group shoved past police officers as they left their hotel, arriving on foot at the embassy about 40 minutes later. The street was crowded with journalists, police officers and people trying to get past police roadblocks to reach some of the other embassies on the block, including the American, Israeli and French embassies. A line of paramilitary police officers then blocked the road and prevented journalists from following the marchers. None of this appeared to have persuaded the relatives and friends of Chinese citizens who were on Flight 370 and have been bitterly critical of Malaysia’s handling of the search. The group protested outside the Malaysian Embassy in Beijing at midday Tuesday, demanding that officials tell them the full truth about the flight.
One diplomat came out to talk to the protesters, who presented the embassy with a scathing collective statement saying the families wanted answers and would consider Malaysian officials and the airline to be “murderers” if the families found that missteps had led to the deaths of their loved ones. The group shoved past police officers as they left their hotel and arrived at the embassy on foot about 40 minutes later. The street was crowded with journalists, police officers and people trying to get past police roadblocks to reach some of the other embassies on the street, including those of the United States, Israel and France. A line of paramilitary police officers blocked journalists from following the marchers up the road.
In the midafternoon, a man who said his surname was Wang spoke at the hotel where the families were staying, saying he represented them. He said the Malaysian government had so far failed to provide any evidence for its conclusion that the plane had ended up crashing in the Indian Ocean, killing everyone on board. He said most of the families did not believe the Malaysian government’s narrative about the loss of the plane. The group presented a Malaysian diplomat with a scathing statement saying the families would regard Malaysian leaders and the state-controlled operator of the flight, Malaysia Airlines, to be “murderers” if it emerged that missteps had led to the deaths of their loved ones.
“I just want the truth to come out with evidence,” Mr. Wang said, adding that he believed hijackers who harbored ill will toward Malaysia had taken the plane. Later in the afternoon at the hotel where the families were staying, a man who said he represented them and that his surname was Wang asserted that the Malaysian government had not given any evidence to back its conclusion that the plane had crashed at sea with no survivors. He said most of the families did not believe the Malaysian government’s account.
After 3 p.m., the Malaysian ambassador to China arrived to talk privately to the relatives and friends gathered in the hotel’s ballroom. A palpable feeling of anger and frustration hung over the conversation, people in the room said. The Malaysian ambassador to China arrived at the hotel after 3 p.m. and spoke privately to the relatives and friends gathered in the hotel ballroom. People who were in the room said the air of anger and frustration was palpable.
The Chinese government continued to make skeptical remarks over the announcement by the Malaysians. “We are highly concerned with Malaysia’s conclusion, and have demanded full information and the evidence that supports the conclusion,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said at a regularly scheduled news conference in the afternoon. The Chinese government continued to express skepticism as well. “We are highly concerned with Malaysia’s conclusion, and have demanded full information and the evidence that supports the conclusion,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, said at a news conference.
In Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Hishammuddin bristled at a news conference when a succession of Chinese journalists asked him about delays in finding the missing plane. “Can I also remind you that we received satellite data from China, regarding sightings in the South China Sea, which made us distract ourselves from the search and rescue to search areas that had already been searched?” he said. In Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Hishammuddin bristled when a succession of Chinese journalists questioned him about delays in finding the missing jetliner. “Can I also remind you that we received satellite data from China, regarding sightings in the South China Sea, which made us distract ourselves from the search and rescue to search areas that had already been searched?” he said.
Mr. Hishammuddin’s office subsequently released calculations from Inmarsat, a British satellite company, showing a wide area of sea in the southern Indian Ocean where the plane could have ended up, depending on whether its ground speed was 400 knots or 450 knots or somewhere in between. The area to be searched measures 469,407 square nautical miles — equivalent to 621,600 square miles or 1.61 million square kilometers. His office released calculations from Inmarsat, a British satellite company, based on the handshake signals. Those calculations pointed to an area of the southern Indian Ocean where the plane must have wound up, assuming it was flying at a ground speed between 400 and 450 knots. That narrowed the search area down to one-fifth of its peak size, though it is still vast — about 470,000 square nautical miles, greater than the area of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington State combined.
That is a fifth of the combined area of the northern and southern arcs that were identified as search areas on March 18. But it is still an enormous area, greater in size than California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington State combined. Surveillance aircraft have been trying to sweep about 20,000 square nautical miles of ocean a day for signs of the plane, though they could not do so on Tuesday because of a storm.
Aircraft operating out of Perth, Australia, have been trying to do sweeps of about 20,000 square nautical miles a day. An underwater search for pings from the aircraft’s black box would be much slower. The United States Navy now sending to Perth from New York an undersea listening device that is designed to be towed behind a slow-moving ship. “We are not searching for a needle in a haystack — we are still trying to define where the haystack is,” Air Marshal Mark Binskin, the deputy chief of the Australian military, told reporters at Pearce Air Force Base near Perth, Australia, where the aircraft are based.
Mr. Hishammuddin said at a news conference on Tuesday evening that all further search for the aircraft had been canceled in the so-called northern corridor, from Kazakhstan across China to northern Laos, and had also been suspended in the east-central Indian Ocean near Indonesia. David Johnston, Australia’s defense minister, said the search area was “probably one of the most remote parts of the planet” and one that “has shipwrecked many sailors.” He said an Australian ship that was hunting for possible floating debris had to move 75 miles off station Tuesday because of weather conditions.
The deputy chief of Australia’s Defense Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, underlined the vastness of the search area. Mr. Johnston called the maritime search, involving ships and aircraft from Australia, New Zealand, China, South Korea, Japan, the United States and other nations, “one of the largest efforts you’ll ever see.” But none of the vessels had yet recovered any of the large floating objects sighted by planes or satellites, and suggested that the plane could be in an altogether different area.
“We are not searching for a needle in a haystack — we are still trying to define where the haystack is,” he told reporters at Pearce Air Force Base, near Perth. An American submersible craft capable of locating objects on the sea floor was being flown to Perth on Tuesday, but Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said it would only be useful once the general location of the plane’s wreckage was known.
David Johnston, Australia’s defense minister, described the search as taking place in “probably one of the most remote parts of the planet” and one that “has shipwrecked many sailors.” He said an Australian vessel, which on Monday was scouring for possible debris spotted by an aircraft, was forced to deploy 75 miles to the south because of weather conditions. “It’s being sent there to be ready should there be a need,” Admiral Kirby said. “And right now, there’s no need. We do not have a debris field.”
Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the chief executive of Malaysia Airlines, repeated the assessment of the authorities here that those aboard the aircraft all appear to have perished when the plane ran out of fuel, particularly given that it has been 17 days since the plane disappeared. “For anyone to survive that long is extremely, extremely remote,” he said. As for the Malaysian police inquiry into the plane’s disappearance, Khalid bin Abu Bakar, the inspector general of the Malaysian police, declined to discuss details on Tuesday, saying “that would jeopardize the ongoing investigations.”
Khalid bin Abu Bakar, the inspector general of the Malaysian police, declined to discuss details of police inquiries into the disappearance of the plane, saying “that would jeopardize the ongoing investigations.” In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Airlines said that though the investigation had not yet found either the plane or the reason it vanished, relatives of those on board had to let go of any hope for a miracle.
Mr. Johnston, speaking to reporters at Pearce Air Force Base, said that despite several reports of possible debris from the plane having being spotted in the southern Indian Ocean, none had been recovered yet, suggesting that any wreckage could be in an altogether different area. He described a multinational search involving ships and aircraft from nations including China, Australia, South Korea, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand as “one of the largest efforts you’ll ever see” in terms of maritime surveillance.
The United States military said Monday it was sending an unmanned submersible craft capable of searching for wreckage using sonar systems. Known as the Bluefin-21 autonomous underwater vehicle, it was sent by air from New York and was expected to arrive in Perth on Tuesday.
Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that the submersible, which is shaped like a torpedo, would only be useful once the location of the wreckage is known.
“It’s being sent there to be ready should there be a need,” he said. “And right now, there’s no need. We do not have a debris field.”
The Australian government suspended search operations Tuesday for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, citing “horrendous” weather conditions in the southern Indian Ocean, the remote and treacherous seas where authorities believe the plane crashed.
In Kuala Lumpur, officials with Malaysia Airlines stressed that despite the lack of details about the plane’s fate, the relatives of the passengers and crew must accept that their loved ones had almost certainly died. Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, announced Monday that new data left no doubt that the plane had gone down in the ocean.
“We must accept the painful reality that the aircraft is now lost, and that none of the passengers or crew on board survived,” said Mohamed Nor Yusof, the chairman of Malaysia Airlines. He said the airline’s primary responsibility now was caring for the grieving families.“We must accept the painful reality that the aircraft is now lost, and that none of the passengers or crew on board survived,” said Mohamed Nor Yusof, the chairman of Malaysia Airlines. He said the airline’s primary responsibility now was caring for the grieving families.
He also said, “The investigation still underway may yet prove to be even longer and complex than it has been since March 8.”
The Australian government said the search for the plane would resume on Wednesday, with 12 aircraft taking part.